As Liverpool have already qualified top of what initially appeared to be a very difficult group, this game was far more important for Porto than for the home side.
Jürgen Klopp made four changes to the team that beat Arsenal on the weekend, as Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Diogo Jota were all rested, giving opportunities to Ibrahima Konaté, Takumi Minamino, Neco Williams and, most notably, Tyler Morton – the teenager, born just across the Mersey river in Wallasey, made his debut coming on as a substitute late in the Arsenal victory and this was his first start for the club. Liverpool set up in their usual 4-3-3 formation.
After playing a weakened team in the cup against second division Feirense on Saturday, Sérgio Conceição returned to his first teamers for the trip to Liverpool, with former Red Marko Grujic missing out as Mateus Uribe returned in midfield as the only change from the team that beat Santa Clara before the international break. Porto lined up in a 4-4-2 shape.
The sides played out what was a very bland first half.
Porto tried to press high, with Evanilson chasing after the centre-backs while Mehdi Taremi stuck close to Morton. This left Evanilson outnumbered though, with two centre-backs and Alisson Becker available for a pass, while Thiago Alcântara would also drop in next to Morton as he does with Fabinho to help play out.
In order to support the outnumbered attackers, Otavio and Luis Diaz had to push up and tuck inside to add extra men to the press, but this left space out on the flanks for Liverpool to exploit. Both Kostas Tsimikas on the left and Mohamed Salah and Williams on the right found themselves with space to receive the ball and play into attack.
Porto on the other hand spread out as if they wanted to play short, but would mostly go long towards their forwards or try to hit Liverpool on the break. With both Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Thiago generally looking to hold back rather than attacking the box, they were generally in good positions to ensure Morton wasn’t left isolated in transition or to pick up second balls when Porto hit it long.
Neither side were offering much but the momentum tipped in Liverpool’s favour when Diogo Costa began giving the ball away in dangerous areas under pressure. The young goalkeeper had produced a horror show in the reverse fixture in Portugal and an uneventful match here suddenly started to come alive as he created chances for his opposition.
Another helpful tweak was that Sadio Mané began to make more runs towards the left. With Takumi Minamino frequently dropping off into midfield, Mané was typically taking up his spot through the middle, however with Otavio either pulled forward towards Konaté or inside towards Thiago, João Mario was getting pulled out of the backline to combat Tsimikas, opening up space behind him for Mané to attack.
Mané scored a goal only for it to be disallowed for offside, but Liverpool took the lead early in the second half thanks to an incredible volley from Thiago. Otavio headed away Oxlade-Chamberlain’s free-kick, but it fell to Thiago on the edge of the area, with the Spaniard stepping across to the left so he could strike straight through the bouncing ball, sending it arrowing just inside the post rather than rushing and striking it at a diagonal as most players would.
Liverpool then doubled their lead. Morton sent a long ball forward that Zaidu Sanusi misjudged, allowing it to run through to Salah. Substitute Jordan Henderson pushed forward in support, and, with no one coming across to help Sanusi, Liverpool’s captain was able to easily roll the ball into the box for Salah to run onto. Shaping to shoot, the Egyptian was able to get Uribe to throw himself to the ground in an attempt to block the ball, only to dummy it, continue inside into the now open space and finish.
Porto switched to a 4-2-3-1, with Antonio Martinez coming on in attack and Otavio moving inside to play behind him, but they did nothing to actually turn around their fortunes at any point during the match, wasting time going to ground over minor knocks rather than fighting to attempt a comeback.
Liverpool had nothing to play for yet still came away with an easy win thanks to another pretty pathetic performance by Porto.
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